Phys.org January 21, 2022 The Biden administration announced policy changes to attract international students specializing in science, technology, engineering, and math—part of the broader effort to make the U.S. economy more competitive. The State Department will let eligible visiting students in STEM fields complete up to 36 months of academic training. There will also be an initiative to connect these students with U.S. businesses. Homeland Security will add 22 new fields of study—including cloud computing, data visualization and data science. Government data shows that international students are increasingly the lifeblood of academic research. However, U.S. Tech Workers, an advocacy group […]
Tag Archives: STEM
NSF-funded study will examine college tenure and promotion process, challenge assumptions
EurekAlert June 30, 2021 At the core of the college tenure and promotion system is the notion that those who are the most deserving are promoted. But, is that truly the case? In a 3-year study sponsored by NSF, a team of researchers in the US (University of Houston, Hampton University, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, University of Alabama, Louisiana State University, Texas A&M University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Rice University) is examining the college tenure and promotion process in academic careers in STEM and challenge some basic assumptions regarding merit as the sole driving force. They posit that candidate […]
Fifteen tips to make scientific conferences more welcoming for everyone
Physics World September 2, 2019 As summer draws to a close scientists around the world reflect on their international conference experiences. Since 2005 SPIE has advocated for women scientists, creating an annual Women in Optics Planner that is distributed to schools and colleges all over the world. Its regular meetings feature a range of equity, diversity and inclusion events, which include talks, training and networking opportunities. Inspired by SPIE’s efforts and their recent call to arms for increased diversity in physics, Physics World presents their advice…read more.
All Engineering Knowledge Has an Expiration Date. The Trick Is to Know When
IEEE Spectrum August 23, 2019 According to the author as new knowledge accumulates, some old knowledge becomes irrelevant and falls off the knowledge stack. Almost all the college course work one took long ago is now useless in itself, although what remains is an engineering mind-set and a mathematical grounding. The purging of obsolete knowledge is probably insufficient to make room for the new stuff, as there seems to be an exponential increase in knowledge. The complexity of our work is always increasing, similar to the increase in entropy decreed by the second law of thermodynamics. Even as Moore’s Law […]
US takes first step toward a quantum computing workforce
MIT Technology Review September 13, 2018 The National Quantum Initiative Act , a bill just passed establishes a federal program for accelerating research and training in quantum computing. The act will release $1.275 billion to help fund several centers of excellence that should help train many quantum engineers. China is pouring billions of dollars into its own quantum computing projects. The international picture is especially significant because these technologies promise to be useful for breaking—but also securing—communications channels…read more.
Analysis Chronicles Changes in US Investment in R&D
R&D Magazine August 03, 2018 The distribution of U.S. investment in R&D across countries and industries has undergone a dramatic shift since the 1990s, with R&D becoming less concentrated geographically and growing rapidly in less developed markets such as China and India. A team of researchers in the US (Carnegie Mellon University, Georgetown University) documents three important issues: the growing globalization of R&D, the increasing importance of software and IT to firms’ innovation, and the rise of new R&D hubs and the differences in the types of activity done there. Based on their analysis, the researchers conclude that the United […]
Shake-up to US graduate education needed, panel warns
Physics World June 01, 2018 A report published on 29 May by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine calls for increased emphasis on teaching and mentoring of students as well as recognition that increasing numbers of graduate students will find careers outside of academia. A panel of 17-strong held focus groups with students, faculty members, university administrators, industry leaders, and policymakers. The report lists characteristics of ideal graduate education and a list of core competencies that all Master’s degree and PhD students should develop. These include developing a broad technical literacy coupled with deep specialization in an area of […]